To the Editor

The question “is vaping safe?” came up in class today and I’d like to talkto you about the research I have done. But first I’d like to tell youwhy I’m concern.

Kids vaping is my main concern. One of theproblems with kids vaping is that the younger people start vaping ordoing any drug in general the more addicted they’ll become. This isprobably because at this age your brain is still developing. So withpeople vaping at my age 12 they can get extremely addicted extremelyeasily. Also one big product in the industry JUUL has a notably highnicotine level the amount of nicotine in one JUUL is almost the same as the amount of nicotine in one pack of cigarettes. That amount ofnicotine is scary for a person of any age. At first vaping might makeyou more alert but after a while it will shorten your attention span.For students this is a significant problem that can affect your grades.

Another big problem with vaping is money. Vapes won’t cost you as much asanother harder drug but over time you’re going to spend a lot of money on vaping if you get addicted. Why should someone spend so much moneyon something that might not be good for your health?
Then there’saddiction. When someone vapes it makes them feel good and eventually it changes the way their brain works making you want to vape over andover. When you get addicted it’s so ridiculously hard to stop. Yourbrain now tells you again and again that you need to vape to feel good.No matter what vaping is doing to your life your brain is going to tellyou to do it because the nicotine makes you feel good.

What about the people who are vaping for its original purpose? Vaping was originallymarketed towards smokers who wanted to quit. Nicotine replacementtherapy has shown an 18 per cent success rate to quit smoking. This is a lot compared to the percentage of people who stop on their own threeper cent. Doctors have said that people who switch from smoking tovaping can get the same feeling with around 90 per cent less of thehealth effects. For ex-smokers vaping has been extremely useful.

What I’m trying to tell you is that for children and people who have neversmoked were never addicted vaping is a bad idea. There’s no reason toget yourself addicted and it is a definite negative. However for people who were once smokers switching to vaping or using vaping to stopcompletely it’s helpful and a good idea. We need to stop children and/or teens from vaping but we shouldn’t ban vaping entirely just enforcewho is vaping.

Editor’s note: This letter has been edited for length.

Nicole Lee
Grade 7